DHS's Huge Cybersecurity Skills Shortage

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.govinfosecurity.com/dhss-huge-cybersecurity-skills-shortage-a-6080

By Eric Chabrow
Gov Info Security
September 20, 2013

More than one in five mission-critical cybersecurity-related jobs at a key 
Department of Homeland Security unit are vacant, the Government 
Accountability Office says.

That's a finding buried in a GAO report on how DHS could improve how it 
tracks recruiting costs.

DHS's National Protection and Programs Directorate's Office of 
Cybersecurity and Communications, which houses much of the department's 
cybersecurity personnel, had a vacancy rate of 22 percent as of June, 
according to a new GAO report, DHS Recruiting and Hiring.

Why so many vacancies? DHS officials tell the GAO that they face some 
challenges because of the length of time to conduct security checks needed 
to grant clearances, low pay compared with private-sector positions and 
lack of clearly-defined skill sets for these positions. Each job in the 
federal government falls into an occupational series classification. 
Cybersecurity personnel are spread throughout a number of occupational 
series, with most categorized within the information technology series.

[...]



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